Tenaya Lake's postcard views are a popular draw with visitors. Yosemite Conservancy is contributing $850,000 for initial improvements to the lakeês East Beach area.

Photo: Mithun, Special To The Chronicle

Tenaya Lake's postcard views are a popular draw with visitors....

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The first phase of the Tenaya Lake makeover includes a new ecologically friendlytrail that will provide easy access for all from the parking lot to the shore and minimize future impacts to wetlands. (Rendering)

Tenaya Lake, known to many as the jewel of the Yosemite high country, will be getting some new polish this summer once the snow melts and the roads open.

The deep blue lake that American Indians once called "Lake of the Shining Rocks" because of the spectacular granite domes that surround it has suffered under the footprints of the hundreds of thousands of people who visit its shores every summer.

A new trail will be built and wetlands improvements will be made at the lake's East Beach this summer - once the giant drifts of snow still blocking much of Tioga Pass are eventually removed and the wilderness area is opened to traffic.

It is the first phase of a plan to improve access, enhance the natural environment and minimize the impact of humans, said Mike Tollefson, president of the Yosemite Conservancy, which is putting up $850,000 to get the project started.

"Tenaya Lake gets hundreds of thousands of visitors during the summertime. Over the years, that has impacted the lake," Tollefson said.

"It's exciting to restore an area that is enjoyed by so many people in partnership with the National Park Service. We're fixing up the impacts of years of people enjoying the lake."

Tenaya Lake, at 8,150 feet elevation, is essentially a deep bowl of granite full of water just off Tioga Pass Road, nine miles west of Tuolumne Meadows.

It is popular with sunbathers, boaters, picnickers and those who get a kick out of an occasional dip in ice water. The area is a gateway for backpackers and rock climbers into a wonderland of high country rivers, lakes, granite domes and giant fields of wildflowers.

The Ahwahneechee Indians called the lake Pywiack (Pie-we-ack), or Lake of the Shining Rocks, presumably because of the smooth, rounded peaks that glimmer in the sun and reflect off the lake.

It was renamed Tenaya after the chief of the Ahwahneechee by the Mariposa Battalion, a local militia that in 1851 drove the Indians out of the mountains and into oblivion.

John Muir was transfixed by the area's beauty and once herded sheep nearby. Ansel Adams not only photographed the high country lake, but also vigorously fought the dynamiting of glacially polished granite in the area to build Tioga Road in the 1950s, a project he said was nothing less than "the desecration of Tenaya Lake."

The plan now is to replace a trail to the beach that goes through a wetlands area next to the road by next October. The new ecologically friendly trail, which will comply with the Americans With Disabilities Act, will take people further south, where beachgoers will be far from traffic and parked cars on the roadway, Yosemite officials said.

New picnic tables and facilities will be installed, native willows will be planted, and the wetlands and riparian areas near the beach will be restored as close as possible to their natural condition.

Neubacher said the conservancy and Park Service plan to collaborate on additional measures to protect wildlife, improve restrooms and other facilities, and redesign the East Beach parking lot to accommodate tour buses that now park on the road.

Roadside parking spots will be eliminated and the entire area will be reconfigured in an attempt to lessen traffic impacts, protect the lake from erosion and sediment runoff, and improve habitat, officials said.

The work cannot begin until the snow is cleared off the roadways. The Yosemite area received almost twice the snow it gets in an average winter, and work crews have struggled mightily to remove the icy drifts, which are nearly 20 feet high in some places along Tioga Road.

The trail work is expected to begin after the road is clear and just as outdoor lovers head to the hills to enjoy the lake's pristine beaches and crystal-clear water.

"I'm looking forward to walking down that trail," Tollefson said. "It will be a big improvement over the high-use area and really improve the experience."